This invention relates generally to a system and a method for maintaining laboratory test records for a plurality of projects. This invention relates more particularly to a record keeping machine system and a method of maintaining records for oil or gas well cementing operations. A particular aspect of the present invention pertains to a method of designing a cement job for an oil or gas well.
Computers have been used in many areas to store data and to permit efficient use of the data. One particular area where computers have not, to our knowledge, been adequately used for this purpose is in the oil and gas industry cement testing laboratory.
The drilling and completion of an oil or gas well frequently includes cementing a casing into the well bore as is well known in the industry. In a cement testing laboratory, samples of different cement slurries are tested for various characteristics to determine if the slurry is appropriate for a particular well (e.g., can it be adequately pumped, will it properly bond the casing in the well bore). Examples of tests include rheology, API crush tests, static gel strength, free water, thickening time, set and wait-on-cement times.
In the past, data relating to oil and gas operations, cements, cement tests, well descriptions, and other related conditions have been stored using a paper filing system. An operator manually records data using pencil and paper or temporarily stores the data using a laboratory test device. At a later time, a report is typed using pertinent data manually collected by looking through the papers. A report in plotted or numerical form from the laboratory test device data might be appended to the manually prepared report. Once the report is completed, the data on the laboratory device is typically destroyed. A search of the data for a specific set of conditions requires browsing through the handwritten or typed papers.
Shortcomings of this type of system include lost or misplaced data, inaccessibility of data at critical times or when search time is short, and the inconvenience or impossibility of making correlations between or among a large amount of data. This type of manual or paper system is not conducive to fast responses to customers' inquiries.
The collection of data concerning well characteristics, cement properties, and corresponding cement tests has been a primary interest to field operators, laboratory technicians and service companies to allow them to efficiently design cement jobs for oil or gas wells. Such data provides the designer a tool which allows him to evaluate past jobs in order to design a cement job for a particular well. It is therefore important that the data from prior jobs can be readily retrieved for this purpose. There is thus the need for a computer system and method for filing data of well characteristics, slurry design, and test results to permit more efficient storing and retrieving of this critical information.
Although such system and method are needed, providing a system and a method which are flexible, easy to implement, but which have wide-ranging application, presents a challenging problem. Differences in slurry design terminology, test applications and results, and units of measure combine to present difficulties for computer software design of practical implementations of such system and method. Software which can operate on a variety of personal computers, printers and plotters is also a demanding consideration. Development of such system and method requires an understanding of cementing operations for design of input, search, and reporting displays as well as software and hardware configurations.